I have not known how to announce this but Sparkle's sweet husband died rather quickly just before Christmas. She is left to deal with her own world turned upside down while watching this grief tear through their nine year old daughter's life...She is very brave and wrote a beautiful post about her fresh grief. It would be special if you gave her some love. I feel wrong to slide this information in on this very seemingly happy post, but that is exactly how his death struck.

Here is a sunset for him.

On a lighter note which I have been so eager to seek, here is a video of cosmetic favorites that is long and will be the longest video I make. I learned a lesson.

But that's what we are here for. Some are not so hard. Others, well, other lessons take the support of many for decades on end...

13 January 2012

In an effort to keep the winter blues at bay, I have chosen to do the PositivelyPresent30 Day Photo Challenge with specific prompts for pictures of things for which you are grateful. I used my iPhone 4 camera phone and edited with BeFunky Pro app, my favorite for editing. I am printing wallet size photos. I made my own journal signatures in kraft paper and will bind in a cover at the end of the project.

Day 2: Smile. My daughter's. That was easy...

Day 3: Happiness

Day 4: Leaves. I love this moody edit on a leafless tree.

Day 5: Morning Sky. I have since corrected the number once I had my coffee!

Day 6: Books. So grateful for books.

Day 7: Something Funny. That leaf. It's been staring at me for months...

Day 8: Favorite color. Of course...

Really enjoying the prompts for this challenge. More to come...

I want to thank you for positive feedback on my little beauty video. Low tech baby. I did another. Still not sure what my point is. Make up is my latest toy I guess. I haven't been buying art tools so much but I have been shopping for cosmetics.

So here's another little video about some items I bought from Ulta and Beauty Brands.

10 January 2012

Five: The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obamascik. This book has been made into a movie starring Steve Martin. I already had it in my library when the movie was released.Although I didn't see the movie, it prompt me to read this true, well-written story. A girl named Robin naturally has curiosity about birds and ever since Ornithology class in college I have been a bird watcher. Not a birder who records every siting and works on a life list. I simply utter the prayer "thank you" when I see a beautiful bird. Enjoyed this book.

Four: Jessica by Bryce Courtenay. I love this author, a big deal in Australia, his book aren't released in the US. I found him many years ago through my book club and he's so good. This is the story of a young Australian in the 1800s who shames her family and is put out in the woods to pioneer her life. The outback is so similar to the land settlement days here in Oklahoma that this foreign setting felt familiar. And I do love me some settlers. So, so good...

Three: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. A lovely life story of a young writer who works for Freda Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Well imagined it creates an epic travel through Mexican and American history. Loved it. Art, writing, history, love, it's all in there.

Two: Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund. Another novel set in historical truth, Naslund writes a fully realized creation of the life of Marie Antoinette with facts woven through this tapestry of royal abundance and the harsh fall from grace. I like just to touch the spine of this book to return to the lush imagination of this brilliant author.

One: One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp. A gift from my dear friend Beka, it was a grappling hook in my early days of grief over mother's death. A song, a poem, a lovely reality, this breathed gratitude into those long foggy days.

Also during those sad days, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw a puffy, ashen face that needed a change. I would go to CVS and look at pretty make-up. I bought all new cosmetics and started playing again with brushes and colors. Shortly Jessi Nagy started her video series Jessi Girls Beauty World. I have watched them all and am like a puppy waiting for her return with each video. It is such a lucky world I live where I can care about make-up. It adds something pretty and positive to each day. I have tried many of the products Jessi recommends. It has really been a great diversion from myself and has actually brought me lovingly back to myself.

To that end I thought I would just sit down and talk about the make-up I was wearing, record it with my phone and upload it to You Tube, none of which I had ever done before. I am not sure why I did this, or why I am sharing with you but I with embarrassment and truth am...

05 January 2012

I finished something! I finished something in a timely fashion. Just for me. That's a nice start to the year. I loved doing this December Daily as prompted by Hope Wallace.

The journal was a purchase from Jackie Peters at the Glitter Market in November. Looky, I bought and then USED something! Using the good stuff is one of my areas of focus lately. And yet, I still haul in more...

Hope's prompts were reflections back on the year creating a nice way to review and close that chapter.

02 January 2012

I really enjoyed the daily challenge provided by Hope's journaling prompts for December 2011. I am finishing that up now. I used pictures very often to express myself as I have done since I got my first camera, an Instamatic in the 1970s. When I saw this challenge by PositivelyPresent on Pinterest I hoped it would be a great way to start the year and fend off the cold January dark thoughts...

One-One-One Two: Favorite Food

Yep, its peanut butter. It is the first food I remember crawling on the old Formica counter top to reach. It got me through grade school, college, PA school, rotations, years of work and now, days at home, stretches of ennui. I am always seeking protein, and here it is. I prefer Peter Pan just soes you know...

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